HO HO HO! Life has been so good to me lately, and I’ve been in such high spirits. This might be the best winter I’ve had. I have started a new job, which I’m absolutely loving so far, and in a few short days, I head to Thailand and Vietnam for my first trip to Asia. I feel so blessed, so lucky, and even more buoyant than this past summer. I hope to film a travel diary and let’s see how it turns out 🙂

But, today, I’m doing something I haven’t done in a while…a beauty post!

It’s holiday season 2018! The biggest launch I’ve supported in my career is the Holiday 2018 collection at bareMinerals, and to see these crazy-complicated project finally come to life at Sephora, Ulta, Macy’s, QVC, online… it’s a rewarding feeling. I started working on these projects in early 2017, so it has been a long time coming. Do you know what it’s like, anticipating holiday over a year in advance?!

One of the stand-out stars of this collection is the Aurora Lights Eyeshadow Palette – an 18 pan beauty. I did a quick google search and O M G… I found many reviews and tutorials on blogs and youtube from people who have purchased. It’s exciting to see people are loving the versatile shades we chose, the luxe and compact packaging, and the chic design.

I’m personally jazzed about this palette and threw together three wildly different looks, to show you what’s possible. To be clear, I am not an eyeshadow girl. I don’t experiment or practice often, and I don’t remember the last time I talked about eyeshadow on the blog. But this is a perfect palette for someone low maintenance or beginner-level and I’ll tell you why.

First look at this shade assortment and just SWOON…then look at each side of the palette. I break it up like this. The left side is your safe side – you can pick up any of the shades and mix and match them, and there will be a low chance of looking a mess. Right side is your bolder, experimental side – you can smoke out your eyes to create dimension, line with them, and get funky.

I created three wildly different looks, using different shades in the palette, to illustrate this.

THE VAMP

Purp! I basically used the four purple toned shades, Interstellar, Venus, Catch Me If… and Romp, conveniently sitting next to each other, to create the drama and the dimension. I place lighter shades closer to the inner corner, and deeper shades toward the outer corner into the crease bone, and to line the eyes. As a little twist, I added this icy frosty blue shade called Comet to the inner corners for attention.

For extra vamp, I paired with a wine colored lipstick.

THE ART STUDENT

Whenever I see an eyeshadow color that makes me confused or nervous about how to apply, I simply use it as an eyeliner. That’s what I did with the the emerald shade, Dazzle, and the metallic royal blue, Meteor Shower. No rules. It’s all art. I like to balance out the edgier colors with a brown glossy lip.

THE BEST FRIEND

I call this the best friend because she loves you and she’s reliable. You can’t mess up an eye with browns, beiges, and gold. You can probably do it better than I did, but you also can’t do it wrong. And the good news is that you can pair it with any lip, even a bold ass holiday RED. Here, I used Delightful and Wavelength, which are cooler brown tones, and then subtly lined the upper lash line with Louder, which is a super festive, gold shade, and added a finishing twinkle of Spotlight in the inner corners.

SO FESTIVE!  A girl who doesn’t do eyeshadow, does eyeshadow. Go find one of these palettes if you can! Unfortunately, it looks like Ulta.com has sold out of them, but if you see one out in the wild (Ulta retail store), either pick it up or snap me a selfie of you holding one of my babies.

I am wishing you a happy holiday season, full of fun and festivities and overindulgence and connection. 2019 is coming up, right around the corner! Y’all ready.

xoxo

Trace